Quicksilver
by Doki-Doki Doku
Summary: A mysterious figure comes to Beach City, and seems to have an agenda. I've had a head cannon floating around for a while and decided to share it on the Internet! Hope you enjoy!
1. Just Enough

**AN: hey, this is my first fanfic, writing at 11 at night so I apologize for mistakes. I really like Steven Universe and came up with a character in my head. This is her story. Hope you Enjoy!**

It was just before closing time at the Big Donut. The sun was going down, Sadie was ready to go home to bed, and Lars (predictably) was taking a nap on the counter. The bell on the door jingled, and a stranger walked in. She was in a ragged, red dress with white patterns, holding a rough walking stick. She looked to be about the age of that dramatic mailman. She had very long, silver hair that, in the fading light, looked mirrored and almost liquid.

Lars woke up and stared at the woman. Sadie gave him a quick frown, then turned to the customer. "Hi, what can I get ya?"

"Just a plain glazed, please." Sadie grabbed the donut and placed it in a bag.

"That'll be 95 cents, please" The stranger dug around in her pocket, pulling out three quarters, a dime, and three, four pennies.

"I'm sorry, I think I'm a bit sho- oh, there we go!"

Five pennies. Sadie felt a bit sorry for her, almost not being able to pay for a donut.

"Well, thank you! Come again."

"Yes, I think I will. You see, I'm visiting someone I met a long time ago. I'll let you two get home now. Goodnight." As the door closed behind her, a bit of her hair was still inside. But instead of getting caught in the doorway, it came off- and... Fell on the floor... In a puddle? Sadie rubbed her eyes, but when she looked back, it was gone.

"Lars, wake up." She gently shoved his arm. "Huh?" "It's time to go home. And you're covering for me tomorrow, I need more sleep."

"Ok."

 **AN: As you can see, a little bit of Larsadie shipping at the end. I'm going to be posting short chapters like this because it's easier for me. Can't wait to write the whole thing!**


	2. Searching

_Ah, a donut tastes pretty good after a whole month._

The stranger was finishing her donut as she was heading to the lighthouse to look for her 'friend'. She opened the door and, seeing no one, headed up the stairs. When she got up there, she saw a, *erhem*, round teenager with blonde hair in an interesting style. He was sitting at a desk on his computer.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for-".

"AH! How did you get up here!"

"Th-The door was open."

"Oh. Wait-Why is your hair liquid!?"

"I was born with it."

"CAN I TAKE A PICTURE FOR MY BLOG?"

"Alright- but just one" the stranger said, deciding at that point that the teen would be of no help. After having her picture taken and being pelted with questions to fast to answer them, she decided that he couldn't hurt her plan, and at the very least he would enjoy it.

"You know, if you really want to know more, meet me at the warehouses on the pier at three tomorrow. You won't be the only one there, but I promise all of your questions will be answered."

"DEAL!" Renaldo and the stranger shook on it. As she walked down the stairs, _he_ posted the picture with the caption 'Liquid hair lady breaks in! More info tomorrow afternoon!'

 **AN: I accidentally deleted this and had to retype it -** ** _twice!_** **What do you think she's up to?**


	3. The Note

**AN: So excited it's getting closer to the backstory. Oops! I've said too much. Enjoy!**

The stranger was walking down the cliff, to the beach, letting her walking stick guide her tired feet.

 _If he's not there, then... No, think about that after you check._

It was fully night now, with a silvery half-moon rising over the water.

"Heh. Just like me." She ran a hand through her liquid, silvery hair.

When she got down to the beach, she looked up to where she knew the Temple was, and saw a house she had not seen before. She became excited, pushing herself to jog up the stairs, pausing at the door to make sure she opened it silently. She stepped inside, and looked around.

There. There he was, sound asleep, older but still the same face she remembered from that night nearly ten years ago. Or so. She could count the seasons but the exact day was to much. She scrambled to find something. A pen. A scrap of paper. She wrote a note, noticing that her handwriting was poor from so little practice, but at least legible and distinct.

She tucked the note under his hand, where he was sure to find it. She took a moment, resting her hand on his. "He was worth it, Rose." He turned his head. She panicked, fleeing out of the door.

Steven woke up to the door closing. Did Amythist decide to go back to wrestling? The note he found convinced him otherwise.

Steven-

I want to explain some things to you and some of your friends. I'm sorry if you don't want to or don't like what you hear, but I really need to get them off my chest.

-QS

In the corner was a silver stain.


	4. Invitations

**AN: Not really much to say here...We're getting close to the end! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Steven went to get one of the gems to see the note. He knocked on the temple door.

"Pearl?" She almost immediately came out of her room. "Steven, what's wrong?" He showed her the note.

"Do you know this.. QS?"

"No, I have no idea who they are!" Then Pearl noticed the stain.

"Steven, was this stain on the note when you found it?" He looked blankly at her.

"Yes, but why is that important?" Pearl began to study the note more closely in the dim light.

"It's strange. This stain appears to be mercury, but we don't have any anywhere in the Temple... Oh! Quicksilver!" Steven looked up at her, even more confused than before.

"Quicksilver is another name for mercury. Steven- I think a _gem_ might have snuck in and left the note. She must have thought to shorten her name to her initials. And the meeting-! Steven, I think we souls all come with you, just in case-" Garnet walked in, and sat with them on the couch.

"What's all this?" Pearl started to explain frantically, stressing the point that _'It could be dangerous'_ and ' _We have to go with Steven',_ but Garnet casually shushed her with a raised hand.

"If this QS wanted to hurt Steven, she would have taken him while he was asleep, not given him an open invitation to invite whoever he wanted. Besides, Pearl, we'll know where he is. We have an underwater mission tomorrow, so when we get back, you can go check on him, alright Pearl?"

Pearl sighed. "Okay, Garnet. Steven."

Steven had fallen half asleep. "Uh-Yes, Pearl?"

"Go back to bed. You need your sleep." "Okay."

When he woke up the next morning, Steven got dressed and ran down to the Big Donut to grab breakfast, note in hand. He burst through the door.

"Lars! Sadie!" Lars was slouched over the counter, but Sadie was sitting up cheerfully, knowing she was going to get a nap later in the afternoon. "Hi Steven! What'll it be?"

"One chocolate donut, please. But I have something I want to show you first!" He showed her the note, and Sadie looked over it, lingering on the stain.

"Wow. You know, this stain is the same color of a customer's hair that came in last night. I don't think she realized at the time, but when she was digging around for the money, she paid with a brown button instead of a penny. I found some loose change in my pocket and put the last penny in the register for her."

"I don't remember anyone like that coming in, and I think I would remeber someone with silver hair who paid with buttons."

'That's because you were asleep, doofus." Steven grabbed his donut.

"Anyways, I was thinking that maybe you guys could come? We haven't done much since the island adventure, and this could be fun." He looked up to the two.

"I am not doing anything magical with you again." Lars huffed and crossed his arms. Sadie looked at him slyly.

"Today's actually really convenient. Someone's coming in to wax the floors at around three, so we should have about an hour. Who else are you planning on inviting, Steven?"

"Well, Renaldo would probably enjoy something like this, Peedee might want to come, I'm definitely going to invite Connie, Onion maybe, and then Buck, Jenny, and Sour Cream if I can find them-"

"The cool kids!? I'm in! They'll probably be at Fish Stew Pizza sometime today." Lars had practically jumped up when he heard those names mentioned.

"Okay, then. See you there!"

Steven walked up to the counter of the fry shop, where Peedee was.

"Hey Steven. Let me guess, you want the bits?"

"No, actually. I wanted to show you something." Steven showed him the note and he read over it carefully.

"Steven, this is more Renaldo's thing."

"I know, I was planning on showing it to him, too. I was hoping that the two of you would come along. It'll be fun!"

"Okay, I'll come, Steven. Let me get Renaldo for you. Renaldo! Steven wants to talk to you!" Renaldo came up to the counter. Steven repeated his explanation, and Renaldo seemed to be deep in thought.

"This sounds like an intriguing event, however I have already accepted a different invitation that occurs at the same time place and time as this one from the lady with liquid hair who broke into the lighthouse last night. Here's her picture on my blog!" Renaldo pulled out his phone and showed the two boys the picture of the stranger, who looked uninterested, but not angry in any way. Steven piped up.

"Renaldo, I think the lady that invited you is the one who wrote the note."

"AH. In that case, I will be there." Peedee face palmed at his brother's ignorance.

"Well, see you at three!" "See you there, Steven."

As Steve headed to Fish Stew Pizza, he saw Onion was following him.

"Oh... Hey, Onion. Um, there's this thing at the warehouse on three, you can come if you want." Onion nodded and ran off. Steven sighed in relief that Onion didn't do anything weird.

At Fish Stew Pizza, the Cool Kids were sitting at a table with a pizza, chatting with each other and with Kiki at the counter. Buck was the first to notice Steven.

"Hey, man." High-fives were exchanged.

"Hey everyone. I got a mystery note last night." He passed the note around as he continued his explaination. "I thought that I would invite a bunch of people since that's what it says to do, basically, so do you want to come?"

"Sure man. I'm not gonna mess up the invitation for you. Besides, it sounds intriguing."

"Yeah, I could get some new ideas for my DJing."

"Sounds like it could be fun. Sure thing Steven."

"I'll have to make sure Dad doesn't need me to work the afternoon shift, but if he's fine with it, then I'll come too."

"Thanks guys! See you at three!"

When Steven got back home, it was 12:39. He grabbed some lunch and called Connie. She promptly agreed after he explained the situation to her. He agreed to pick her up on Lion at 2.

Well, everyone had agreed to come. The last thing to do- was to wait.

 **AN: Well, that was a long chapter. Just had to make sure everyone was coming!**


	5. The Past

**AN: At last, the backstory! There will probably be one more, epilogue-y chapter after this. PM me some prompts to write about if you want!**

3:00.

Steven was standing at the pier. Everyone that he had invited was there. There was just one thing left to figure out.

Where the heck were they supposed to be? There were at least twenty warehouses that the liquid hair mystery lady could be in. Everyone was inspecting the warehouses for signs of which one to enter. Then Onion started waving his arm, gathering everyone. Steven was one of the last few to see it.

"So, Onion, what did you fin-" In front of the doorway of warehouse 13, there was a colorful arrangement forming the initials QS out of gem shards. Steven gulped.

"Well, this looks like the place. Everybody ready?" There was a chorus of nods and yeses. He pushed open the door and walked in, careful not to step on the shards. The group followed his lead.

When they walked in, they were greeted by dim light filtering in through the window and the mystery woman, standing in the middle of the light, hair shining and rippling.

"I see that everybody is here." She turned her head ever so slightly towards Steven.

"Y-yes, this is everyone."

"Good. Now, let me tell you a story."

- _flashback_ -

There was once a strange creature of a woman, who had deep, red-orange skin, and a gemstone under her long red hair. After being torn between her loyalties and her friendships in a war, she slowly corrupted into more and more of a beast, growing fangs and a tail, walking on all fours. She roamed the land. The war ended, and many, thousands of years passed. Then, one day, a man found her, and seeing that she was a beast, shoved his knife into her. She vanished, and her gemstone clattered on the ground. He carried it back to his home as a trophy. But to his surprise, on the way back, the stone began to glow. It floated out of his hand, and from it came the form of the beautiful woman she once was. However, she had no memory of what she once was. The young man, making an assumption with his limited knowledge, told her that she had been possessed by a demon and lost her memories. He offered her a place to stay in his house, a solitary cabin in the woods far away from other people. She agreed, and told him the only thing she remembered.

Her name was Vermillion.

The two lived together, and slowly fell in love. After a while, they realized that sometimes she would relapse into her beastly form, but they still loved each other and they worked through it, together. It was not long after before Vermillion found she was pregnant. They were both excited for the child to be. However, after a few months, she began to remember her past. She did not tell her husband, but wrote everything down in a book for her unborn child. Soon the time came to give birth. She said her final farewells to her lover, and slowly faded away. However, she did not realize that, as she faded, her beastly features returned. When all but her gem had gone, it cracked, and out came a silver, glowing liquid. The liquid soon sprouted the body of a healthy baby, who rested peacefully in her father's arms. Her father was in tears at the loss of his beloved, but promised to look after the baby.

She developed faster that most people. She began to walk at six months of age, and spoke fluently by fourteen months. Her father had eased his loss by immersing himself in scientific studies, especially geology. He would give her the books he had on the subject while he was busy, and she spent hours learning of, what she would soon realize to be, her heratige. Her mother's broken stone lay on top of her nightstand. One night she opened the drawer in her nightstand, and found her mother's journal. She read through it, learning of her mother's deeds and her long time spent as something resembling a tiger. The young girl realized what she must be, and that night, she left, putting her mother's stone and journal by her father's bed.

She walked through the woods, and it did not take her long to realize certain powers she had. She could go on with less food than her father, her strength was greater than one would expect, and she could use her silver hair in any way she wished, with concentration. She found more corrupted gems, wandering around like her, but sometimes, they would somehow shatter themselves. When this happened, she collected the shards and put them in her hair. They gave her a sort of comfort. She realized another power was that she could not be shattered.

Months passed, and in her loneliness, she became corrupt as her mother. Her mother had been a tiger, and she had become a silvery, fluid wolf. She ran faster now, until she ran into a group of four older people. They were hostile towards her, and she hid, but when they left, the pink haired leader stayed and called out to her. She comforted the little wolf, and she slowly became the young girl she truly was. The elder listened to the younger's story, and an agreement was made so that she could be granted to the Temple, her key being her hair gem and her lock being disguised in the silver star that already was there. The kind woman saw her unusual gem, and named her Quicksilver.

She spent the next few years living there in secret, until the pink haired woman fell in love with a human man. The girl was happy for her, but apprehensive of what was to come. Inevitably, the couple married and the woman conceived a baby. The girl would take walks with the leader in the night during their last months together. On one such walk, towards the end of the pregnancy, the woman suddenly gasped and said:

"It's time."

It was quick. Before she was entirely gone the girl promised the woman that, even if she were to leave for some time, she would come back and look after her young boy was born, and the young girl left the spot, carring the baby back to where Rose would have been at the time had she not been out. She walked away, finding a fallen branch to use as a walking stick, and promising to return to the small seaside city that had given her the best role model she could have asked for.

- _end flashback_ -

"And here I am."

The gathering was respectfully silent, some in tears, some holding back tears, and Renaldo finishing his recording of the event and beginning to type a blog post.

Steven walked up to Quicksilver, her face shrouded in shadow.

"Do you want to move back in?"

"I'd like that very much, Steven. Thank you."

Pas he hugged her, her tears stained his shirt the same shade of silver as was on the note.

 **AN: Thank you to everyone who has read this, and to Rebecca Sugar for making a show that inspired me. There will be one last Eplogue chapter, then I am open to suggestions or prompts. Love you guys!**


	6. Learning

**AN: Sorry it's taken me soooooo long to post this. I wanted to make sure I had a good idea that you would enjoy. Anyways, the final chapter of** ** _Quicksilver_** **!**

She had been living back in her old room for a month now.

It felt good to be back in her empty, seemingly endless silver room that responded to whatever she wanted. She had modeled it after Rose's and Pearl's rooms, from when Rose had shown her around the temple. She missed Rose, but not anymore than she had on the road.

Steven had introduced her to all of his friends, and surprisingly most of them were closer to her age than his. She would often go with him to the Big Donut, and sometimes she'd hang out at Fish Stew Pizza with whoever was there. She earned a little bit of money by helping out at Mr. Universe's car wash so he could give guitar lessons, so she didn't worry too much about staying with Steven. She had even managed to purchase some jeans and t-shirts, her favorite being red with a white heart. Even though she didn't need to eat every day, and he probably didn't need to either, the kid convinced her to have breakfast with him every morning. The gems had been a little wary about her at first, but they had come to accept her, and Pearl had even started to help her with the one gem thing she had never mastered:

Summoning a weapon.

The full gem thought that her difficulty with summoning a weapon might be in part due to her slight corruption, but never dwelled on the topic too long. She decided that Silver (as Steven had decided she be called) should try each type of weapon and see what she felt the most comfortable with. She practiced with spears, swords, hammers, gauntlets, whips, anything Pearl had, but she could never get the hang of any _one_ weapon. They just didn't feel like _her_. Steven had optimistically pointed out that Lapis's weapon wasn't really a weapon, it was water, but she wanted something she could defend herself with, not an insta-puddle. And she still couldn't summon even a sharp stick.

"Silver, I think that, maybe, if you were to join us on a mission, then you might have a little bit more of a sense of what summoning your weapon feels like."

She thought about it. The crystals, as she liked to think of them, had made it a weekly habit to go to the Kindergarden and poof any fusion experiments they happened upon. Amethyst and Garnet were on the warp pad, ready to go, and Steven was spending the afternoon at Connie's house, Lion prepared to pick him up once it started getting dark. She wanted to summon a weapon so she knew she could help defend this little santuary of a town from Malachite, from homeworld, from anything that would take this away from her. And she had finished the books Connie had lent her.

"Okay." She stood up and walked over to the pad with Pearl. The usual column of light appeared, and a few moments later, she saw a desolate landscape, decorated with ominous drills.

"Alright. Fan out, and call out if there's too many for you to handle." Garnet's even, serious tone was soothing in this bleak place.

* * *

She had been walking for a while, checking every Amethyst-shaped hole for one of the monstrosities. She had never seen one, but had a general idea of what they looked like. When she rounded a corner, she nearly gasped, but covered her mouth. There stood one of the experiments, but at least three times the size of what the others had described. What in the world? She should call the crystals. But what if it attacked her before they got here? She could feel her corruption creeping up her gem. _No, I can handle this on my own, as me._ She stood there, trying to control her pounding pulse, focused in her gem, her 'heart'. _I am in control. I AM IN CONTROL._ Suddenly the sensation vanished, and when she looked up, she did gasp. There in front of her was a silver wolf, made of her gem. Hand trembling, she reached up for her hair, and instead of the usual fluid silver, it felt like normal hair, and it was the same crimson color her father had said her mother had had. The moment was shattered by the false fusion, turning to attack. She shrieked. The wolf jumped up and morphed into a quaterstaff, landing into her hands in time for her to instinctivly hold it up as a defense, barely managing to move out of the way as the punch connected with the ground. _I am in control._ She willed the quarter staff into a long lasso, wrapping itself around the beast's legs. She then commanded it to form a long sword point, which she grabbed. She ran up the back of the captured creature, and stabbed it in the base of its neck, deep. It cried out, and poofed. She fell into her gem, which cushioned her fall. She walked up to the fallen gem shards, which were in a ball as big as a normal bubble. She was panting, tired from the shock of the event. She bubbled it and sent it to the temple, then sank to her knees to rest. Her gem, scattered across the ground, slowly moved up to her, and instead of re-becoming her hair, it entered her body, filling her veins. She sighed.

The crystals came running, no doubt in response to her shriek earlier. Amethyst was the first to notice her hair. "Woah, what happened to your 'do?" She stood up, faced them, and said, "It looks like I inherited more from my mom than my gem."


End file.
